Barca President Sandro Rosell accused of fraud

Brazilian prosecutors have accused Barcelona president Sandro Rosell of fraud. His company is accused of illegally extracting profits from a Brazil vs Portugal friendly organized in 2008.

The prosecutors allege that Rosell’s marketing company, Ailanto, pocketed €400,000 of the €3.5 million it received in public money in order to organize the match, as also claimed by Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.

Similar allegations were presented before, but those were dismissed. Prosecutors claimed that it was due to a forged document being presented. The court has decided to reopen the case henceforth.

Rosell’s lawyer in Brazil, Antenor Madruga, however termed the charges as “ridiculous” and “resting on nothing”.

“The charges that have been levelled are under two allegations, one about whether his company had the capacity to promote matches, the other whether he presented false documents to prove he was able to promote matches. The police investigation did not come to any conclusion, but the prosecutor went ahead anyway. The charges are ridiculous, it is nothing. The legality of this case rests on nothing.” Madruga said.

Folha de Sao Paulo wrote that Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) president Ricardo Teixeira benefited from the game to the tune of €275,000. In March 2012, Teixeira, who resigned from CBF and 2014 World Cup organizing committee citing bad health conditions, had a career full of controversy and corruption allegations.

Rossell was associated with Teixeira since he was the head of Nike’s sports marketing in South America. Despite the irregularities found in Nike’s sponsorship by Brazil’s Congress in 2001, no case was filed.